Well-known atheist Richard Dawkins is receiving criticism on social media networks after publically expressing his outrage at an international airport security checkpoint for confiscating his jar of honey.

Dawkins took to his Twitter account on Sunday to express his dismay that a tiny jar of honey he had been traveling with through an international airport security checkpoint had been confiscated due to current TSA [Transportation Security Administration] regulations regarding the amount of liquid one can carry on a plane. "Bin Laden has won, in airports of the world every day. I had a little jar of honey, now thrown away by rule-bound dundridges [sic]. STUPID [sic] waste," Dawkins tweeted.

Dawkins then received a rash of public backlash, both on the user sharing websites Reddit and Twitter, for his complaint about the honey. Some said he was wrong to write that "Bin Laden had won" over such a petty item as a small jar of honey, while others argued Dawkins should have understood the TSA rules before putting a large-sized liquid in his carry-on luggage.

One user on Twitter commented: "I'm not sure that Bin Laden's number one target was your honey jar, but yeah, he kinda won," while another added: "You truly are the real victim of terrorism."

A third commenter added: "You could have just read the rules properly and not kept it in your hand luggage."

Dawkins, the author of The God Delusion and a professorial fellow at the New College in Oxford, then went on to respond to the criticism, writing on Twitter: "Of course I know the airport security rules. My point is those rules are stupid advertising displays of dundridge zeal. Bin Laden has won." Dundridge is a term used by Dawkins to describe one who uses their job in an deliberately uncooperative way.

"Are you carpers really too thick to see the difference between a matter of general principle and a petty concern with a single jar of honey?" the biologist added. "Do you idiots seriously think I give a damn about my stupid honey? It's the PRINCIPLE I care about. Get it? Principle, not honey, principle," Dawkins added hours later after his first Tweet regarding the honey.

This is not the first time Dawkins has found himself in hot water for controversial comments. In September, he received widespread public criticism when he refused to condemn what he described as an experience of "mild pedophilia" during his childhood.